Should Children Be Allowed to Watch Modern Media?

Here’s an enlightening excerpt from a screen-skeptical parenting blog:

I know when my children were young, I thought managing their screens came down to 2 things: 1) limiting their time so they aren’t watching too much and 2) making sure they aren’t watching anything violent or ***ual. If the content was silly or mindless, so what? After all, I watched cartoons as a kid, and I turned out fine. And now, as an adult, I had my own “mindless content,” shows I would watch to unwind after the kids went to bed.

Here’s the thing that I didn’t realize then that I do now: the “mindless” content our children are being exposed to today—especially on YouTube—is not the same as the silly, escapist reality shows that we adults sometimes watch. The short and (I’ll just say it) stupid videos our children are watching on YouTube aren’t just wasting their time; they are actually harming their brains.

In fact, there’s a word for this particular kind of content: brain rot. And brain rot is having such a profound impact on our children at large that it actually was named the Oxford Dictionary’s 2024 Word of the Year.

Read the rest of it here…

I would suggest that lowering the brightness and speed of the video also lessens the risks, adjusted by the child’s age.

Needless to say, I’m not actually endorsing any adults or children seeing videos, etc., etc., etc.

אברהם אבינו ע”ה – בענין מערים על השבועה

ב”ר ל”ט ו’:

רבי עזריה משום רבי אחא פתח (תהלים מ”ה), אהבת צדק ותשנא רשע על כן משחך אלהים אלהיך שמן ששון מחבריך רבי עזריה פתר קרייה באברהם בשעה שעמד אברהם אבינו לבקש רחמים על הסדומים מה כתיב תמן (בראשית י”ח) חלילה לך מעשות כדבר הזה להמית צדיק עם רשע והיה וגו’.

א”ר אחא, נשבעת ואמרת שאין אתה מביא מבול לעולם ומה אתה מערים על השבועה אתמהא מבול של מים אין אתה מביא מבול אש אתה מביא א”כ לא יצאת ידי השבועה.

אגב, כבר העירו שמבואר בש”ס (סוטה י”א א’, זבחים קט”ז א’) לא כן, שרק על כל אומות העולם אינו מביא, אבל על מקום אחד שפיר מביא מבול, וכ”ש מבול של אש. וכן קשה על רבי לוי בהמשך המדרש, “השופט כל הארץ לא יעשה משפט, אם עולם אתה מבקש אין דין ואם דין אתה מבקש אין עולם ומה אתה תופש חבל בתרין ראשין וכו'”.

The Bibas Deaths… I Yet Know God’s in Charge!

‘As Hamas Celebrates Dead Babies’: A Poem by Brian Yapko

As Hamas Celebrates Dead Babies

February 23, 2025

 

The Bibas deaths… how do I tell this news?
A mother and her sons—all blameless Jews—
Killed senselessly. My words seem desecration…
For I have not one word of consolation,
No explanation, nor a gift for silence
When faced with ululating savage violence.
No pretty words. Nor can I well control
The pain and sheer disgust at those who stole
The lives of little babes, who laughed and strangled
Helpless necks, who then vaunted their mangled
Dead bodies to all Gaza’s crowing cheer.
I did not know these babes yet feel their fear,
The fingers held too tightly to the throat—
Breath taken with an “Allah Akbar” gloat.

How do I now escape dark haunting dreams?
How do I keep myself from raging screams
Or else collapse in breath-defying sobbing?
And all about us savages are robbing
The West of all civility and grace.
All decency is toppled from its place
Outshouted by a world which hates what’s right
And gladly chooses darkness over light
While Jews are slaughtered, scapegoated and shamed.
But Islam must not ever once be blamed.
What do they think they build by taking lives
From innocents, by worshipping their knives?

How do I make this searing pain abate
And stop myself from prayers infused with hate?
In times like these when I can scarcely cope
I yet know God’s in charge. This give me hope.

 

Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals.  He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel  Bleeding Stone.  He lives in Wimauma, Florida.

From The Society of Classical Poets, here.

You Can’t Believe a Word the Israeli Government Says Without Evidence

Also, grass is green, the sky is blue, etc.

From the media recently:

Previously classified hostage, Elyakim Libman hy”d, was accidentally buried with another person already murdered on Shmini Atzeres

Tidbit (I haven’t found the original source): During the entire period Elyakim was considered a hostage, the “security services” kept telling the family they had “signs of life” for the ostensible hostage (as of January 2024), but couldn’t share details with them due to “security reasons”…

Ponder that…